


and now the world is ours to take / and every single move is ours to make

by thatlittleblackcat



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: F/M, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, The Raven King Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-03
Packaged: 2018-06-05 23:48:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6728251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatlittleblackcat/pseuds/thatlittleblackcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Adam was the scientist, Ronan was the data, and Orphan Girl was the key that explained the strange outliers that Ronan presented, his previously unexplainable actions."</p><p>// </p><p>Adam sorts out his feelings, Ronan helps him, Gansey is the number one dad friend, Blue is the number one mom friend and Henry tries to make Ronan smile. Otherwise known as the story of how Orphan Girl became Opal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	and now the world is ours to take / and every single move is ours to make

**Author's Note:**

> it was interesting reading up about crystals!! the things I do to write fic (๑ↀᆺↀ๑)✧ title from the lyrics of Gentle Bone's Until We Die.

It was impressive how quickly everything had returned to normal after finding Glendower, how natural and silent the relapse back into the realities of everyday life was. Within two days, Adam Parrish had gone back to school, having caught up on the homework that the school had emailed him following his urgent request. Purposeful and cool, Aglionby’s students and faculty had not been able to get anything out of him.

Within five days, Aglionby’s administrative staff received word that Ronan Lynch intended to withdraw from Aglionby Academy. There had been a slight fuss within the faculty, not that the administrative staff knew anything about it, but it resolved itself when Helen Gansey had come. Poised and regal as how a lioness would have been, she disappeared into the Headmaster’s office only to reemerge looking even more poised and regal than before. Headmaster Child had emerged as well, looking even more pale and twitchy than the administrative staff thought possible.

Within the week, Richard ‘Dick’ Campbell Gansey III had been discharged. He had also returned to school, as was the duty of a student and the son of an aspiring politician. He was also, however, the lucky hero of a mysterious tale that swept the students and faculty into a flurry of whispers as he stepped into the Aglionby halls. Excited boys descended upon him, slinging friendly arms over his shoulders, badgering to get the story out of him. It did not work, as Gansey politely deflected all the questions, and everyone slowly began to resign themselves to the the fact that they were unlikely to ever get an epic retelling of adventure that Gansey had been on.

“Gansey,” said Adam’s voice from behind him and Gansey had turned immediately, relief prominent in the curve of his smile, but only obvious to those who knew him well.

“Adam,” he said as way of reply and politely disengaged himself from the tangle of disappointed young men to walk over to Adam. “Hey there.”

Adam bumped his fist against Gansey’s. “Looks like it's just me and you now. Ronan’s decided to stay in the Barns forever.”

Gansey stilled, a small minute gesture that easily ran unnoticed, before smiling. “Yes, so it appears he has. As have you.”

Now it was Adam’s turn to still. Gansey watched him from the corner of his eye, cataloging Adam’s responses. It was comforting, truth be told, to see Adam become more certain of himself, more honest with himself. Confidence suited Adam they way a well cut suit did on a model— elegant, easy, effortless. Adam had fine bones and thin wrists that had been carved for a powerful purpose and it was nice to see Adam growing out of the shell that he had been holed up in.

“Yes,” Adam agreed, running a hand through his dusty hair, worrying his lower lip with his teeth. “So it appears I have.”

***

Normalcy was severely objective, Adam knew now. What was normal in his life before was strange now, and what was strange in his life before was normal now. Like how stepping through the fields of the Barns brought him relief instead of discomfort, tension seeping out of him as he walked up the muddied path to the whitewashed walls of Ronan’s home— no, it was also-

Adam stopped. The sun hung low in the sky, the dying rays lighting up the front windows. Fruits that should not —and could not— be growing in this continent fell lushly over him, branches sagging from the fruits' weight. It was wild, beautiful, fierce— it was everything Ronan represented to Adam. Everything here was Ronan’s and Ronan’s alone, and was hard to think that he too had been given a place here. In this part of the world that should not have existed, but did. Simply because a dreamer had dreamed.

The front door banged open and a little white creature hurtled out onto the front porch, squeezing through the gaps of the metal railings to tumble onto the mud, before clattering over to Adam.

“Hello,” Orphan Girl said, taking hold of his right hand. Her skull cap clung to her head askew, and her honeyed curls showed from underneath. She was no longer wearing the dirtied fisherman’s sweater that she had refused to give up since she had fallen out of Ronan’s dream, but a softer, more delicate dress better suited for the warming air. That was new.

“Hello,” Adam replied dutifully. “Where’s Ronan?”

Ronan, just as Adam spoke his name, appeared at the doorway, a jumble of harsh lines and dark shadows that contrasted greatly against the softness of the Barns. With a angry curl to his mouth, he pointed to Orphan Girl.

“Get in here, you,” Ronan snarled. “Just because Adam’s here doesn’t mean you’re not in trouble.”

“What did she do this time?” Adam asked, barely controlling his laughter. Orphan Girl clung to his arm and hid behind him, as though he could physically shield her from Ronan’s wrath.

“She bit through the edge of Dad’s leather chair,” Ronan replied, annoyance rolling through the syllabuses. He stomped down the stairs towards Adam and Orphan Girl; she emitted a soft squeak of terror and shifted to Adam’s left.

“You make her sound like a dog,” Adam said conversationally, shifting in accordance to Orphan Girl. Ronan raised an eyebrow at them. “Maybe you should start teaching her how to behave instead of leaving her alone while you dream.”

“You-” Ronan broke off, breath leaving in a huff that sounded more amused than angry. “You need to stop taking her side.”

“Well, she’s _your_ dream, so technically I’m taking _your_ side.”

Ronan’s eyebrow raised higher, if that was possible.

“Come on,” said Adam, tugging Orphan Girl back into the house, leaving a simmering Ronan behind standing on the muddy pathway. “Let’s get you something proper to eat, instead of leather chairs.”

***

They met at Nino’s afterwards. As was the realities of everyday life, Blue still had to work, regardless of whether she had (unwillingly) killed her boyfriend the week before. (He was thankfully alive and well, courtesy of a magic forest.) Money was an unsympathetic, unkind but necessary thing and Blue understood that.

They all ordered their usual pizza and milkshakes, the primary diet of starving teenage boys. The only difference was that they now ordered a little pasta plate from the kids menu, meant for a little girl with grey-blue eyes, a white shift dress and huge yellow wellingtons that Blue knew covered up the strange hooves she had instead of feet.

“Here you go,” she said, sliding the steaming plate of cheese and penne in front of Orphan Girl. “Be careful, it’s hot.”

Orphan Girl answered quickly and swiftly in that strange, lilting language of hers, a dream language not meant to exist in the real world.

“Speak properly,” Ronan snapped opposite her. “You know we don’t understand anything you say.”

“Thank yuuuu,” Orphan girl slurred, before digging her fingers into the penne. The hotness of the pasta did not seem to faze her.

Gansey marvelled at Orphan Girl, as he constantly did, before turning to the rest of the group. He began to rattle on about something that had happened at school, to which Henry replied enthusiastically, Adam half-heartedly, and Ronan nothing at all. Then Gansey said something which made Henry burst in raucous laughter, and Gansey laughed with him as well.

Ronan and Adam exchanged swift glances with each other, a conversation held over the milliseconds, ending as Ronan looked out of the window with a smug smirk. Adam looked back at Gansey, biting the inside of his cheek to hold back his laughter. This Adam now was unlike the Adam that Blue knew before— his smile was now dredged up from whatever cage it had been held in previously, sunny, bright and veracious, and the casualness of his body now radiated with a self-assurance that had not existed before. The self-assurance of being cherished. It was in the tilt of his head, the stretch of his arm on the booth seat— mannerisms that sung of loving and being loved.

Blue couldn’t help but smile as well.

***

Ronan woke the next morning to the sound of Adam opening his bedroom door. Happiness rolled around in him, a feeling that was quickly mixed with other feelings that he didn’t want to think about— _not now_ , he growled silently. He turned, watching Adam walk to his side.

“Sorry,” Adam whispered. “My car broke down, so I was wondering if I could borrow your BMW.”

Ronan sat up, head still clouded from last night’s conversations and midnight kisses. “What, boy mechanic extraordinaire couldn’t fix his own car?”

Adam jerked his shoulder, biting down his lip. “I don’t have the things now to fix it— I’ll need take into the shop. I’ll borrow your car for just today.”

Ronan tossed him the keys that lay in his bedside drawer. “I’ve told you, everything here is yours. You don’t have to ask.”

Something in Adam’s expression shuttered, a quick fleeting flicker in his eye. Ronan saw that he was struggling with something inside of him, his mouth swallowing the words that rose on his tongue before they could be cast, iron-hot and branding, into the air between them. But before Ronan could say anything— not that he was sure of what he wanted to say— Adam had released a breath and smiled faintly at Ronan. “Thanks.”

“I want it returned with no scratches, young man.”

Ronan watched Adam’s smile stretch into a grin, before he turned on his heel and disappeared down the hallway. Ronan’s happiness swelled into a wave and crashed against his ribcage, thundering and cacophonous. Ronan lay on his bed till it settled down, listening to the sound of his car being driven down the gravel path. Then came a resounding crash, followed by a _KERAH_ and the feathery beat of wings, before ending in a deadly silence. Ronan sighed. That could only mean one thing.

***

Ronan watched as Orphan Girl splashed happily in the bathtub. It had taken him a week to wrestle her out of her sweater, a fight that had ended only when he dreamt her the white dress and yellow wellingtons that she now wore everywhere, and had also ruined from this morning’s escapade. He could have easily gone out to the store to buy something, as Adam had pointed out yesterday in the afternoon, but it seemed more appropriate to give her bits and pieces from where she had come from. Adam had mulled over that, watching Orphan Girl feed Chainsaw bits off her plate, and then agreed with him.

It was something surreal, being able to spend his days like this. Having Adam over frequently, taking trips around the lands that surrounded the Barns, quietly dreaming of things for Orphan Girl. He and Gansey had nearly fought about this, that once. Gansey had still been in the hospital, trapped to his IV fluids, which was why Ronan felt guilty about bringing it up and very nearly gave in. But then Adam, logical and practical Adam, had spoken up for Ronan on this matter.

“Let him be, Gansey,” Adam had said, coming round the bed to stand next to Ronan. “You know he’s not suited for Aglionby. Or the classroom for that matter.”

“Yes, but-” Gansey replied helplessly.

“He’s more than this,” Adam cut in, his voice steady and calm, an anchor in a tumultuous sea. Ronan hadn’t known what _this_ meant, exactly, but when Adam said it, Ronan felt as though he had galaxies and universes spiraling inside him, nebulas and moons pulsing through his veins.

“This is what I want, Gansey,” Ronan said, uncharacteristically soft. “You don’t have to keep trying to protect me. You’ve done more than you should have had to do.”

And there it was, a reminder that Gansey had died just a few days before, that Gansey had died to save Ronan. It hung thick in the air, unpleasant and bitter. It was a circular loop that Ronan wouldn’t be able to escape from, knowing that he would forever feel indebted to Gansey. That he should have lived his life as Gansey would have wished for him to. But confining himself to the four walls of a school and being forced into a mold that he did not wish for— or care for— was not something that he could have borne easily either.

Gansey had nodded. When he spoke, no matter how he said it, it would always be the resounding, resplendent voice that reverberated without meaning to. It was the voice of decades and centuries of royalty, of polite agreements instead of curt orders, of promises that would definitely be kept. For a king’s word was law and his magicians would obey.

“Okay then.” And that had been that.

So Ronan was allowed to roam as he pleased, tending to the Barns and living his life ‘as a farmer’, as he had once told Declan. Declan, surprisingly, had not pushed him further, and perhaps it was the shock at the possibility of losing both brothers at the same time that made him quietly withdraw from the fight. He had driven down from Washington the day after the demon had tried to unmake Ronan, Matthew bundled in the back of his Volvo. For the first time since Niall Lynch's death, the Lynch brothers had spent a night together at the Barns.

It was weird how things that were now normal in his life had been once strange, and how things that were now strange in his life had been once normal. There was a splash of water on his feet, and he focused to see Orphan Girl had clambered out of the bathtub and was now attempting to run out of the bathroom dripping wet.

“Oh no you don’t,” he grunted and blocked her way with a towel, wrapping her in it. She shrieked and struggled, but Ronan knew her well enough to know that it was just a show. So he put on a show too, pretending to be disgruntled and annoyed, snapping at her for putting up a fight. Then she giggled, the first human sound that Ronan had ever heard her make beside speaking, and placed her hand against his cheek.

“Kerah,” she said, and when she said it, it sounded like a _thank you_.

***  
Adam hadn’t realised the impact of driving Ronan’s BMW to school that day would have had. In retrospect, he should have thought of it. It was very unlike him, to not have carefully considered all options and weighed possible consequences. The Adam from before would have kept his head down, making sure that he kept to the lines that society drew, his only goal to escape Henrietta without trouble. The Adam now however couldn’t be bothered by the glances that other students snuck at him over the following days, the stares of familiar faces that he knew around certain parts of town.

“They’re still staring,” Gansey said, his voice full of amusement.

“I know,” Adam said, fixing a polite smile of his own. Had Ronan been here, he would have scorched the stares of the students with a stony stare of his own, but Ronan was not there. Adam simply did not have it in him to be angry, not when it was something that made him feel like he was floating.

“Parrish!” called out a voice, a youthful sound that had been built upon money and things going his way. Adam turned to see Tad Carruthers walking towards him. He could feel Gansey slipping into his Aglionby form, powerful and princely, ready to deflect Carruthers if Adam showed signs of being threatened by his presence. But Adam no longer cowered in front of people that he thought would look down on him. For Adam was beginning to feel secure in his own skin, his own character, his self. _These are my hands, and these are my eyes._

“Carruthers,” he greeted. “How can I help you?”

Tad Carruthers stared at him, eyes unreadable, before going straight to the point. “Are you dating Ronan?”

Gansey straightened next to Adam. Aglionby students were raised on the shores of old money, money that had come to them per tradition and set rules and regulations. They grew up under the thumb of unspoken laws that reflected in their mannerisms, their words and their lives. They did not usually take kindly to changes.

“Yes I am,” Adam replied unflinchingly.

They braced themselves for the explosion, but it never came. Instead, Carruthers stuffed his hands into his pockets, hunching in over himself, looking defeated. Adam glanced at Gansey, bewildered, and Gansey returned the look.

“Guess I should have made a move first, huh,” Carruthers sighed, wry smile pulling his lips.

“Oh,” Adam huffed out in a breath he had not realised he was holding. Gansey looked even more bemused than before.

“I-uh, well-” Adam tripped over his words, unsure of how to proceed. It was the first time something like that ever happened— not that these things happened a lot to Adam— but a lot of things now made sense where they had not previously.

“It’s alright,” Carruthers said airily, which Adam knew did not mean he was feeling airy at all. “If you get tired of him though, you know where to find me.”

Then he gave Adam a wink before walking away.

Gansey could not help it; he erupted into laughter as soon as Carruthers was safely out of hearing range. “That was a sight to see,” he gasped between breaths, a hand braced against the lockers behind them to keep him from sinking to the floor in hysteria.

Adam tried, and failed, to erase the memory from his mind. “Now I’ll have to live knowing that Tad Carruthers winked at me,” he said, trying to keep a straight face, but Gansey’s laughter was infectious.

“What’s so funny?” Henry asked as he drew closer to them. Somehow, Henry had become part of their group since that day, even though there was still a clear them vs us when it came to Ronan and Adam. It was wavering, Adam knew, now that Ronan knew how much Gansey liked Henry, but it was there nonetheless.

“Tad Carruthers just tried to hit on me,” Adam said nonchalantly.

Henry gaped at them. “No way man, you’re pulling my leg. That’s unreal. Oh, I can’t wait to see Ronan’s face when he finds out.”

Adam’s eyebrow raised itself before he could stop it. He was going to have to start curbing his expressions, really. He blamed it on all the time he was spending around Ronan, now that it was clear Ronan’s little idiosyncrasies were beginning to rub off him.

“And what makes you think you’ll be seeing Ronan anytime soon?” he asked.

Henry smiled a guileless, fearless smile. It bordered on the edge of crazy ideas and plans too large to be kept in one boy’s head alone. Adam was beginning to understand why Gansey liked Henry so much too.

“Because I’m going to go to the Barns with you.”

***

For the most part, Gansey had tried to stop it. At least, that was what he tried to tell himself, even though he knew his half-hearted protests had not been convincing at all. Henry had just continued smiling, secretive and furtive, and refused to divulge the reasons why he believed Ronan, a secretive and furtive man, would not burn him down for stepping onto his property without permission. It was curiosity that made Adam shrug half-heartedly, deciding that Henry’s metaphorical death would not be on his conscience, and it was curiosity that made Gansey give up persuading Henry otherwise.

Henry strode down the pathway up to the Barns, looking every inch a prince about to engage in a meeting with an enemy delegate. Adam and Gansey skulked behind. As Ronan came to answer the doorbell, they quietly waited to see what Ronan’s reaction would be.

“Lynch,” Henry said pleasantly.

“Cheng,” Ronan said unpleasantly.

They stared at each other for a minute, before Ronan shot a betrayed look at Adam. Adam quickly raised his hands, the universal sign for I _didn’t have anything to do with this_ , and Ronan rolled his eyes, the universal sign for _yeah, right_.

“Henry!” said a female voice, and from behind Ronan appeared Blue, wild-haired and larger than life. “There you are.”

“Shortie?” Ronan growled, looking doubly betrayed.

“Oh, pshaw. Don’t be a shithead Lynch. Invite him in, he’s got stuff for Orphan Girl.” Blue stood at five feet zero, but her attitude and personality made up for the rest of it, as did the hands on her hips and defiant expression. Ronan looked two seconds away from throwing all of them out (save Adam), but instead narrowed his eyes and took a step back.

“Whatever,” he sneered, and disappeared off down the hallway.

Henry looked pleased. Stepping inside, he was unusually quiet, but the Barns tended to have that effect on people. Whimsical, strange, tender, it was a place that burst with fascinating objects and a fantastical atmosphere. Even Gansey, who had grown up here as a child, was still not quite able to get over the feeling that the Barns gave him each time he visited.

Orphan Girl stood in the shadows of the archway that led to the kitchen, appraising the visitors with her large eyes. She was not usually shy, for the most bit, but neither was she as innocently trusting as other children. Not that she was one, though. Gansey wasn’t sure what exactly she was, but given her tiny stature and frame of mind, he often thought of her as a child between the ages of three to six. It was easier on his brain like that. Blue headed to her first, sweeping her by her side.

“Why don’t you show them what I got you?” she suggested, tugging on Orphan Girl’s hand as if to twirl her around.

Orphan Girl paused, hesitation warring with the want to show off, but at Adam’s encouraging smile, she took a step forward and spun in a circle. A little skirt, sewn together from patches of cotton and lace and gauze flew up into the air as she did. Blue clapped enthusiastically as Orphan Girl collapsed back into her arms.

“You made that for her?” Gansey asked, kneeling forward to admire Blue’s handiwork. It was pretty and much like Blue, fanciful but sensible.

“I did,” Blue said proudly. “It’s got pockets.”

Orphan Girl squirmed, kicking Gansey in the stomach with her hooves.

“That was nice of you,” Adam commented, reaching in to take Orphan Girl from Blue as Gansey tried not to show how much pain he was in. “How did you get here anyway?”

“Ronan fetched me. I told him I had something to give to Orphan Girl, so he came and got me from school.”

“What about that little act of yours?” Henry asked, who had slipped down from off the sofa to squat closer to the four of them. “Not afraid that your schoolmates would think you’re a hypocrite?”

Blue waved a hand. “Bit late for that.”

Ronan appeared in the archway, still fuming. “If you’re not going to do what you came here for,” he snapped, mostly at Henry, “then get out. I don’t want your preppiness rubbing off in my house. It’s contagious.”

“Oho,” Henry shushed, “Patience, my man, is a virtue.”

“I don’t need you commenting on my moral values, thanks.”

Henry didn’t bother replying, instead fixing his gaze onto Orphan Girl and reaching into his pockets. From it he withdrew a glittering chain, tiny baubles catching the sunlight that slipped in from the windows, casting rainbows onto the carpet. For a moment, Gansey remembered Aurora Lynch, pearls cascading through her hair in the rose glen of Cabeswater. But whatever it was that Henry cradled in his hand, they lacked the luminous sheen of pearls; instead they were transparent and clear, refracting the light that rolled through them— they were-

“Opals,” Blue and Adam breathed together. Adam reached out to touch them, letting them fall between his fingers.

“Yes, opals,” Henry confirmed. “I found them in the basement of my home. No, they’re not magical,” he continued, cutting Gansey off before he could even speak. “My mother never leaves magical artefacts in the house. But I do believe they were something that could have sparked her interest in the otherworldly. Jewelry is quite sparkly, isn’t it?”

“They’re spiritual stones,” Blue said approvingly, admiring its iridescence. “Good for healing and imaginative processes. They’re also protective stones used for stable dreaming.”

The last sentence, although said casually, was quite clearly aimed at Ronan, who kept his face impassive and half hidden in the shadows. Together, they watched as Adam offered the string of opals— it was a headpiece, Gansey realised— to Orphan Girl, who eyed it warily. Like dreamer, like dream. It was a thirty-seventy percent chance that Orphan girl would take it, thirty being in the favour of Henry.

Then Orphan Girl reached out and, with great curiosity, bit down on one of the opals.

Blue started to laugh, as did Adam, unrealised tension dispelling as easily as that. “She likes it,” said Adam, attempting to tug it out of her mouth. “She must really like it.”

Henry hummed in agreement, the same pleased look crossing his face. “Well, that’s that,” he said, rising to his feet. “I’ve done what I’ve come to do. Blue, do you need a lift home?”

Blue shook her head, but rose to her feet as well. “I was planning to drop by Monmouth Manufacturing before heading home,” she said, looking at Gansey. “Shall we?”

She held out her hand to Gansey, who could not quite help the smile that spread across his face as he took her hand. “Of course.”

Ronan made a gagging noise. “Get out,” he said, but his words no longer held any sort of bite.

Henry swept into a theatrical bow, backing towards the front door. “I will take my leave now, lady and gentlemen. I bid thee farewell.”

Before he could leave though, Orphan Girl scrambled up from Adam’s lap, hooves pattering gently on the carpet as she reached Henry. With throw of her arms, she quickly hugged his leg before releasing him just as quickly, galloping back to hide behind Adam.

Henry’s expression now had a strange quality to it, which Gansey slowly realised was relief that he had been trying to hide. Ronan stared straight at him and give him a cursory nod, his face still impassive and unreadable as before. Henry’s lips lifted into a twisted smile, before walking out of the Barns.

“I told you he was nice,” Blue chided next to Ronan.

“Can it, maggot,” Ronan replied immediately. “Go back to your palace with your king. God knows he can’t keep it in his pants no longer.”

Blue’s face immediately turned red, chest swelling with indignation and rage. “I was just going to do my homework there, you filthy minded creature-”

Ronan laughed manically and danced away from the blows of her arms.

***

The next night, Ronan took Orphan Girl to visit Adam at his work place. Adam had not been expecting them, but it was a welcome respite from the drudgery. Orphan Girl hugged his leg and handed him a bunch of flowers, picked from the gardens of the Barns, pale blue flowers that were velvet to the touch.

“Thank you,” he said, touching the top of her head. She giggled, a sound that had made Ronan use his phone for the second time in his life to text Adam about it, and gently bit his fingers before going back to Ronan’s side.

“She must find you interesting,” Ronan smirked as Adam inspected the little teeth marks on his hand.

“She must be like you,” Adam retorted without heat, just to see Ronan grin even wider, all teeth and heat.

The sound of a wrench clattering onto the floor made them both turn, watching as Orphan Girl clambered expertly onto the table. Her skullcap shifted as she climbed, and from beneath peeked the glimmer of the headpiece Henry had gifted her before.

“That’s cute,” Adam said and Ronan did not have to ask to know what Adam was talking about.

“She likes it,” Ronan said dismissively, conveniently ignoring the fact that he would have had to braid it into her hair himself. It made Adam feel warm inside, the fact that Ronan knew how to braid hair, and also pleasantly surprised. Ronan had been unknowable, but with Orphan Girl, pieces of him had begun to reveal themselves to Adam, who hoarded these facts the way an insatiable scholar would with new knowledge. Adam was the scientist, Ronan was the data, and Orphan Girl was the key that explained the strange outliers that Ronan presented, his previously unexplainable actions.

He continued to work in silence, and Ronan was content to just watch him, letting Orphan Girl roam about the workshop with Chainsaw. Before he knew it, it was midnight, and Orphan Girl had fallen asleep on the dirty sofa across the room.

“You should take her back to the Barns,” Adam whispered. The air around them had turned quiet and cool, the only sound coming from the buzzing of the fluorescent light above. Ronan hummed, shifting closer to lean against the hood of the car Adam was working on.

“You coming with us?”

Adam shook his head. “No, I’ll go back to St Agnes today.”

Ronan was silent, but the implied question hung in the air between them. Adam sighed, dropping the cloth he had been using to clean the inside of the engine. “You know I don’t belong to the Barns, Ronan.”

“And why not?” Ronan’s voice laced with confusion and anger, secondary emotion to hurt.

Adam kept silent, contemplating his explanation. The thought of having a place in the Barns still scared him, even though he had acknowledged it. Wanted it. It was the wavering insecurity of letting himself being looked after, of using and playing with things that were given to him, that stopped him. It felt as though it was charity. He knew it wasn’t, but at the same time the thought alone uprooted something bitter inside him.

Yet, it was strange, the way Ronan looked when he had asked Adam to move in with him. The glint in his eye, as if throwing up an invisible barrier around himself when he asked him the night they had been discharged from the hospital. Adam had taken it to mean that he wanted company, somebody to hold onto as the darkness of the night grew. But there was something, something more, and Adam could not quite grasp at it.

“You know it’s not charity,” Ronan snapped, and Adam realised how well Ronan knew him by now.

“I know it’s not,” Adam said, trying to keep his voice gentle. The past few months of being around Ronan had let him better understand the intricacies of his mind, made him realise how easily a callous word of his could send Ronan into a world of hurt without meaning to. Adam would do anything to avoid that.

Ronan pushed himself off the car, drumming his fingers on the tabletop as he swung himself onto a chair. The rhythm was erratic, loud, pulsating and it dug itself into Adam’s ears. Ronan bowed his head, as though in prayer, and Adam watched the shift of muscles in his arms, the folding in on himself, as though he was lost, as though he was a warrior who had no one to return to-

 _Oh_.

Oh, oh, _oh_.

Adam grasped at the _something more_ he now understood with the same relief a drowning person took with their first gasp of air.

“Ronan,” he said and slid over to the seat next to Ronan’s. “Ronan, I didn’t mean- God, I’m such an idiot.” He laughed a little, running his hand through his hair.

“Ronan,” Adam said again, moving to take Ronan’s tapping fingers. Silence billowed again as Ronan’s hands stilled and Ronan turned to face him. “I will always come back to you.”

Ronan’s expression shattered. It was the breaking of a mask, the crumbling of a carefully and painstakingly built wall, the demolition of a gate meant to keep out unwanted intruders. Ronan shuddered as he took in a shaky breath, his vulnerability and hope and suspicion playing across his face.

“You-” he choked out, and that was all he got out before Adam leaned in to kiss him.

“Don’t be silly,” Adam chastised when they parted. Ronan looked thoroughly out of his mind, eyes closed as he tried to regain a semblance of control over his facial expression. Adam smiled. It was pretty cute. “When I said I didn’t belong to the Barns, I didn’t mean forever. I just need time.”

Ronan opened his eyes, his glacial blue eyes, piercing and electric as though they could see into the depths of Adam’s soul. “Time,” he agreed, and pulled Adam in again for another kiss.

***

“Opal’s also the stone of love,” Adam said conversationally once they had bundled Orphan girl into bed. It was a godforsaken hour in the morning by the time they had managed to pull themselves out of the workshop, but Adam didn’t mind because there wasn’t any school the next day.

Ronan raised an appalled eyebrow at him.

“Don’t look at me like that, you asshole. It’s just a fact. Look, I even followed you back here, didn’t I?”

Ronan promptly looked smug. “I knew you were a lovestruck fool.”

“I think we should call her Opal.”

The thought slipped carelessly from Adam’s mouth, falling before he even knew it. It was hard trying to control his thoughts around Ronan; it was like his inhibitions had just cut themselves off completely.

Ronan, thankfully, did not make a sarcastic jab at this. Instead, he looked at Orphan Girl thoughtfully, the opals in her hair looking as though they belonged there.

“Alright,” he said. “Alright.”

“I knew you were a lovestruck fool,” Adam said and waited as Ronan whirled on him, indignant that Adam had dared to use his line against him, and pulled him in by the waist.

“Do you think we’ll be able to dream nicely tonight?” Adam whispered, nodding towards gleaming stones that littered Orphan Girl—no, _Opal’s_ — hair.

Ronan’s eyes gleamed as well, but from a different kind of light.

“No one’s dreaming tonight,” he whispered, his breath hot against the shell of Adam’s right ear. Adam shuddered and closed his eyes, letting his body surrender against the frame of Ronan, boy, dreamer, warrior, his.

**Author's Note:**

> Work scene inspired by the lovely Peri's [drawing](http://mixedbird.tumblr.com/post/143651820859/4-30-16-work-day-visit). She drew Opal exactly as how I imagined her to be and more ଘ(੭ˊ꒳ˋ)੭ Also, I imagine Opal's biting habit to be like that of Sunny from The Series of Unfortunate Events haha.


End file.
